Charles talks with Nerida Rand to find out how a background in improvisation plays out in the classroom. Nerida was an exchange student in a Japanese high school in the 80’s and has been back in Japan as a teacher since 1997. She teaches in the Graduate School of International Social Sciences at Yokohama National University as well as being adjunct faculty at Keio SFC. When school’s out she’s acting, improvising, and translating plays.
We discuss the why, how, and what of music in the classroom - as well as music for the teacher. Mentioned: Radio Paradise: https://radioparadise.com/player Misheard lyrics: https://bit.ly/t3lyrics
A bit tweaked at the end of the semester? I guess we were, too, so off we go on a lightning round session of time saving and emergency pull-stuff-out-of-your hat ideas. Mentioned: Socrative: https://www.socrative.com Google Forms: https://www.google.com/forms/about/ (does not require Google Classroom) Teachers for Ukraine: https://www.teachersforukraine.org Bonus link: - NYT - 145 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing: https://tinyurl.com/nytpicprompts...
We talk about teaching reading and all the ingredients that get baked into that. Why, what kind, how…all of it. Correction: only 55% of web content is in English, not 75% as I stated in the podcast. Mentioned: Episodes 73 and 77, the Paul Nation Interviews: https://twoteacherstalking.org Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China , Jung Chang: https://amzn.to/3QQCdkG "Why English?": http://tony-silva.com/eslefl/whyenglish.html...
Mentioned in the podcast: Two Teachers Talking Podcast http://www.tony-silva.com/t3/index.html October 2021 - 141 Does everyone understand? Are there any questions? September 2014 - 54 Plagiarism
It’s a new school year in Japan, and very likely, most of your classes are now again face to face, or, at least, mask to mask. Things are returning to “normal.” Or are they? What is the new normal? How have the last two years changed you, your students, your teaching, their learning, and our academic universes?
Another year begins. Instead of talking about how, we discuss some of the whys. Why teach English? Why teach foreign languages? Why English?: http://tony-silva.com/eslefl/whyenglish.html Go Abroad: www.goabroad.com/articles/language-study-abroad/why-is-it-important-to-learn-a-foreign-language Decision making: How Knowing a Foreign Language Can Improve Your Decisions, Catherine Caldwell-Harris: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foreign-language-improve-decisions/ Lead With Languages: htt...
Tony and Charles talk about last months’ discussion with Professors George Truscott and Nathanael Rudolph on what’s involved in program coordination. Then, the discussion turns to Tony’s departure from Japan and his landing in Mexico.
Charles sits down with George Truscott and Nathanael Rudolph to discuss the art of Program Coordination. Approaches, philosophies, goals and outcomes, staff management, limitations, liabilities, and juggling all the balls.
Treading carefully into 2022, we first look back at Episode 143 (Teaching While Black in Japan) and two years of COVID Era Teaching. We then pull out our cloudy crystal balls for a look at the future.
Three very special guests join us to discuss being a black educator in Japan: hiring (and leaving), student interaction, staff interaction, peer interaction, teaching materials, stereotypes of the English teacher…and, most importantly, how we can improve things. Avril Haye Matsui is an educator, activist, researcher, and Ph.D. candidate, studying the status and roles of black women in ELT. You can view one of her JALT presentations here: The Changing Face of ELT: Black Women in ELT, https://yout...
We all dream about it. What’s yours look like? But, remember the old adage…be careful what you ask for. Make your list and let’s compare notes.
We know that Japanese students’ English comprehension is overrated, even by those of us who know that their listening comprehension is overrated. But that’s not it, or, at least all of it. Join us in a deep dive on impediments to understanding and how maybe, just maybe, we can make things better. Mentioned: Grant Wiggins, Understanding By Design: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Design-Grant-Wiggins/dp/1416600353 Gary Larson, The Far Side Comic Strip, “What they hear”: https://desertdemocrat...
Thoughts and comments on teaching pronunciation and the interview with Prof. Alison Kitzman in Episode 139. Then, a brief discussion of how computer translation may require a reset on how English, or any foreign language, is taught. Mentioned: My Cousin Vinny, Two Youths: https://youtu.be/NdCijCUj8w Perfect English in an incomprehensible essay: http://tony-silva.com/download/badessayannotated.pdf DeepL Translator: https://www.deepl.com/translator English Language Statistics: http://tony-silva.co...
Prof. Alison Kitzman of Kindai University talks to us about the what, why, and how of teaching English pronunciation in Japan. Included free: cicadas and a very bad Eliza Dolittle impersonation. Mentioned: Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, Peter C. Brown: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Peter-C-Brown-ebook/dp/B00JQ3FN7M/ref=sr\_1\_1?dchild=1&keywords=make+it+stick&qid=1627252684&s=digital-text&sr=1-1 Stress in the Speech Stream, Dr. Wayne Dickerson: https://www...
You know how you’re “supposed” to conduct and manage your classes, assignments, and grading. Sheer work volume—classes per week, students per class—often makes that ideal impossible. So, how do you get it all done and still maintain quality and sanity? With great difficulty and effort. And some tech.
Approaching mid-semester, an odds and sods SITREP. What can we learn and apply going forward this year, including a report from Tony on the world of retirement. Mentioned: Compleat (sic) Lexical Tutor: https://www.lextutor.ca
Two heads, too many cooks...so, when does it make sense to sit down and hash things out and when is it better to just go it alone? Mentioned: Modular Press - Charles' new textbook and materials publishing portal: https://modularpress.org . The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Fred Brooks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month . Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance ....
Maybe you don't know whether you'll be teaching online or in the classroom. Maybe you know. Maybe you think you know. If the past year has taught us anything, it's to be prepared for the unexpected. We try to help you cover all the bases. Good luck this year, folks.
Game Over: Tony has retired. I made it. My last class was February 10, my contracts expire 3/31/21. I'm retired. 🍾 🥂 Charles and I talk about what this means. I used to teach: http://tonysensei.net Personal: http://tony-silva.com Also, for the record, after some of those last classes, I cried like a baby. I will miss teaching way more than it sounds on the podcast. When it's your time, don't be too proud or think you're too tough to seek out some counseling to ease the transition. Just sayin'....
The self-sabotaging student. There's nothing so creative, resourceful, and frustrating as a student set on his or her own failure. You can't win them all.
Charles talks with a first-year education major at a university. They discuss her educational journey, transition from international school student to an observer at an international school, online learning, and face-to-face classroom observation.
It's been such a rough year, we didn't have the energy to select a topic. Still, we manage to marshal some lessons learned and even find some not-so-obvious highlights of the past year.
Many articles have been published in the past few decades “debunking” the notion of learning styles. Yet, despite that, many teachers are reluctant to let go of the idea. Then what about differentiated learning? Well…"they" say that doesn’t work either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Tony sits down with Prof. Alison Kitzman to try to sort this out.
After a semester on the front lines of remote learning/teaching using Zoom, we share what we’ve learned. Some basics, some stuff we’re pretty sure will be new to you. PLUS, a special giveaway of a great application/tool. Good luck with the new semester!
A look back at what was necessary to survive the first semester of remote teaching and what might be necessary in the semesters to come, for both teachers and students. What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Everyone’s feeling the strain at the end of along, even crazier than usual spring semester. A mind mapping tool might be what you need to ease the load a bit. What’s a mind map and where can it take me? Find out. Uses, tips, essential features.
How much is too much, how much is too little? Conscience, responsibilities, ethics, cultural imperialism…we struggle with how to begin to figure out what the right thing to do is on rapidly shifting social terrain.
It’s been a few weeks. We’re still standing (well, sitting, mostly), zero student casualties, at least as far as we can tell. So, what’s it been like? Taking a break in the trenches, we try to assess what's been happening, what’s been working, what hasn’t, and what we–and our students–have learned so far in this very unusual academic year.
We take apart the student discussion on the turns university education has taken this year (E123: Meet Generation C, 4/20) and confirm the value of listening to our students. We also talk a bit about the state of the profession and how we ourselves are coping with the new world we find ourselves teaching in.
